Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Boxing Day Sale

Thanks rrlev. Those are nice setups. Fun to have a variety to listen too. Very envious! I hear you on the drawn out projects for sure. Time is our most precious commodity. I’m learning that as I get older. ( I’m not THAT old but you know what I mean. ).

Mojo, copy that on the 2 channel for movies. I’ll always be a stereo guy first definitely. But shall surround setup is sounding pretty cool. We live 3 hours away from a movie theatre. And with covid a real deal having interesting things to do at home is sounding good.

Awww geez! You can pick up B-stock actives now for less than the price of an M100!!!

Not quite...... but close. They’re refurbed. But still!!! What a deal.

Dam there is some great deals on the pages right now.

There’s quite a few refurbed LFR on there. Are folks updating to actives then I wonder?

Mojo I don’t recall but did you go to LFR before going active LFR? Or m80v2 to active LFR?

With discounts, the B-stock actives are less expensive than M100s.

I went M80v2 to M5v4 to M3v4 to M50v4 to M2v4 to M100v4 to active LFR...LOL!

Maybe but you need 8 more amp channels ... which can add some $$. Plus you need space for all those boxes. Believe it or not, I needed to think about where to put it all when laying out the HT.

Indeed!

Oh! Sale is still on!

Neighbors came back yesterday so I was too busy enjoying loud and full-subwoofer days of music and movies to come back with the change of center of my home theater until now.

First, answer to Mojo's question: Yes.

Reminder: I had created two calibration settings, one with center, one without (as I had done when I received the M100s and needed to decide if I kept using a center or not).

Other reminder: There are 4 variables that could each affect results or impressions of my 4-5 days of intense listening.
1. v3 to v4
2. HP version of the woofers
3. Inverted cabinet (important as my center is very low)
4. Psychological bias (I am a well-known psychic who can determine the location where the works were recorded just by reading the booklet).

To start, interesting phenomenon that I experienced the 3 times I tried it (2 days intervals). First starting without center. Sounds good. Doesn't appear to be a hole anywhere and yet... Turn center on. Suddenly the hole that wasn't there gets plugged and instead of having the great wall of sound provided my the M100s, there's just sound with everything just... there! The first time (after I got the M100), it was not always better with the center and even when it was better, it was not as... "disapearing".

So, in general, music with few instruments or solo voices sound much better now (more real, instaneous and with better dynamics). The only way I could express it in a coherent manner is it's like there is one less barrier between me and the interpretation. Even a concerto for a solo (or few instruments) have a more accurate spatial distancing. It's like if the orchestra is now more clearly behind the soloist. Not that suddenly the soloists sound "forward" or in front of the stage, just that the respective position of the players is more as it is on a real stage.

The M100s provided me with many "wow" moments (and so did the QS10), but now all 7 speakers + EP800 combine to provide me wow moments a few times an hour. Pretty happy with the results. Would they have been worth 1630$ for a new (but wood finish) VP180HPv4? Good question. I kept trying to decide myself one way or the other. As hindsight, it would have been worth it. But I'm glad there was exactly what I wanted in the refurb during that special which brought them to 650.

(Next year, if there is again a pair af LFT1100 active with 2xADA1500-5, I will definitely get it at 10000$ even if it's walnut espresso!).

Large-scale orchestral works don't show as much wow, except where there are solo instruments here and there. Anything with voice got better (more attack, improved dynamic). At some point I started to listen to Carmen just to hear voices with a richly colorful orchestra and ended voice so mesmerized by the "presence" of the performance that I listened to it in its entirety (spoiler: she dies in the end). Several lieds in Winterise got to me strongly. It was like the singer was reaching out and pulling me with him. The dynamics was also jaw dropping (with goosebumps).

Same for solo piano, violin sonatss or AWESOME cello or clarinette in chamber ensemble. So... "there" that it is hard to stop listening. Pipe organ also sound more... linear. My EP800's amp was repaired some time after I got the M100s (more likely replaced) and I could feel it's presence quite a bit, especially during movies or LFE intense TV shows like Star Trek Discovery, now that I could crank up the volume for a few days.

Well, on a side note (for the other rooms), I did replace the M2 by M22 in my "morning room" and used those M2s to add surround to my office. Quite nice!

Last day of vacation, so I will try to enjoy the rest of the day even if neighbors keep coming in and out.

Very interesting to see that you have similar observations as I found in my thread
dynamics myth

Even with the powerful floorstanding speakers, the less instrument/vocal music sounds better than orchestral works. This makes me think how good the floorstanding speakers need to be to perform the busy frequency-dynamic music great with high volume to reach the AWESOME level. It seems that this is a really tough goal to replicate a live music hall at home.

A question for those that ordered stuff during the awesome 20% sale. Has your stuff shipped yet or been received? I ask because I ordered a b-stock EP500 Dec 26 and a VP160 a week later and both say the order is still being processed. An email to Axiom inquiring 2 days ago has yet to be answered. This seems unusual as Axiom in the past has had great and quick service.

Thanks - p